About two weeks ago I came home from work to find my host mother’s mother laying on a bed outside of the house. Thankfully I had met her once before so I felt pretty sure this was her. Baba only speaks Gagauzian and her eyesight is fading out, so we had a hard time communicating […]

September 1 is the first day of primary and secondary school for Moldovan children. I had heard stories about this day, called First Bell, from my host sister Veronica, teachers, and other volunteers. The holiday sounded like a huge production – concerts, speeches, feasting all day. This year I missed my village’s events. I worked […]

Last week I walked home from work to drop off my computer. I was exhausted and in need of a moment alone with the English side of my brain. My host mother’s daughter, Tanya was there with her 6-month-old daughter, Liera. I told my host mother and Tanya I needed to run to the bank. […]

Today is Gagauzia Independence Day. (Gagauzia declared independence from the Soviet Union on August 19, 1991.) My host mother and I celebrated by going to church. Here are some highlights of what this entailed: We toured the garden to see what we could bring with us. We picked about 2 kilograms of purple and white […]

Monday was Aliona (my work partner)’s son’s 3rd birthday. She invited me to the party. I have now attended three Moldovan birthdays. This one still shocked me as the others did. The amount of work that goes into hosting a birthday party is crazy to me. Here, the Moldova birthday boy or girl hosts a […]

здравствуйте! Hello! I am now officially a Peace Corps Volunteer, and officially have Internet access. My Internet connection is poor during the day but usually works in the middle of the night, which will be convenient for you Central- and Eastern-Standard-Timers. The Swearing-in ceremony was pretty spanking cool. Twenty-six of us trainees took the official […]